View full sizeA closeup of the new Olde Towne Daphne history guide reveals the efforts taken by Daphne artist Ted Burn to detail historical sites on the map. (Marc D. Anderson/manderson@al.com)

DAPHNE, Alabama -- From Indian mounds dating back to the 1500s to ties to the Revolutionary and Civil wars to a Southern culture that began to thrive in 19th century, Daphne is steeped in history.

In an effort to share the rich past of Baldwin County'a largest city, the Olde Towne Daphne Association took up the task of creating a natural history map and business guide. The fruits of their labor were unveiled at this week’s Daphne council meeting.

The “Places to be seen in Daphne” brochure has 52 key areas of historical interest that are labeled with corresponding descriptions, and a separate guide highlights more than 80 business in Olde Towne Daphne, which encompasses the downtown area on Main Street/Scenic 98 west to Mobile Bay.

View full sizeThe new Olde Towne Daphne Guide folds open to reveal a 52-points-of-interest historical map with descriptions of each site on the back. (Marc D. Anderson/manderson@al.com)

Cathy Barnette, a member of the Olde Towne Daphne Association and former city council president and member of city’s redevelopment authority, said the project started two years ago when members of the group asked, “How do we continue to build a sense of community within the Olde Towne area" between residents and "merchants who have invested so much of their time and resources and their energy in investing in downtown?"

From there the idea of two guides began. One to serve as a historical guide for locals and visitors alike and the other serving to recognize those who help sustain the Olde Towne experience. Artist Ted Burn of Daphne brought the idea to life with his drawings and local historian Al Guarisco -- with his treasure trove of facts and stories about Daphne’s past -- helped fine-tune the historical descriptions of each point of interest.

With help from a Daphne Redevelopment Authority grant, the association was able to print 10,000 history map/brochures and 5,000 business guides.

“I just want to thank everybody that played a hand in getting this put together -- the design and the dedication of the groups of people who made this a reality,” Casey Vito, president of the redevelopment authority, said during this week’s council meeting when the guides were unveiled. “I think it’s going to be an amazing piece to put out into our local communities. We are going to have a distribution area that’s both local and also in the Pensacola and Mobile area and beyond. Because we really do believe this will draw people into the heart and soul of Daphne, which is Olde Towne.”

View full sizeHistorian Al Guarisco received a framed copy of the Olde Towne Daphne Guide from Olde Towne Daphne Association President Karen Nady on Monday, March 18, 2013. Guarisco helped the group catalog the 52 points of interest on the new map that will be distributed throughout Baldwin County and surrounding areas. (Marc D. Anderson/manderson@al.com)

Olde Towne Daphne Association President Karen Nady presented Guarisco. as well as the city, with a framed copy of the map during the meeting.

“We told him to come," Nady said of Guarisco, "and that I’d give him the first map. And it’s true I did.

"He really is the heart and soul of history in downtown Daphne.”

After the meeting, Guarisco said he was happy to assist the group. He said there are a number of significant landmarks and points of interest throughout Daphne’s bayfront area.

He talked about the Village Pointe Park Preserve and its links to early French explorers and early settlers who died of yellow fever in the 1820s and were buried on the grounds of the preserve at the D’Olive Cemetery. It was also the site of Indian mounds, a Revolutionary War battle and the majestic Jackson's Oak, where it is said during the War of 1812 that Major General Andrew Jackson stopped and spoke to his troops on their way to the Battle of New Orleans. During the Civil War, Confederate troops camped there and Union soldiers landed on its shores prior to the last major battle of the war at Fort Blakely in Spanish Fort in April 1865.

“One of the most important things in Daphne is The Howard Hotel,” Guarisco said of the 19th-century hotel on Belrose Avenue near the old Howard/Dryer Landing where bay boats brought passengers across the bay from 1807 to 1933. ”The hotel, I don’t know when it was exactly built, but (Captain William Howard) bought the property in 1833 and it was the finest hotel in the Southeast. It was very important also in that when the courthouse was moved to Daphne the first court sessions were on the ground of that hotel underneath an oak tree. And later the courthouse was built (in 1868), but that is one of the strong points of early Daphne.”

The old hotel was later renamed the Daphne Springs Hotel and today the 2-story Greek Revival structure is Bayside Academy’s administrative building.

“There were 3 hotels, the Howard Hotel, Hollywood Hotel and Shorts Hotel,” Guarisco said. “They go back into the 1850s and it was the heyday of that. You could catch the stagecoach at the Hollywood Hotel and go to Pensacola along the old Spanish Trail.”

While Guarisco shared just a snippet of Daphne's history, now -- thanks to the Olde Towne group's efforts -- residents and locals alike have that history at their fingertips.